Modern Cube Jockeys and Nineteenth Century Prostitutes

I just finished reading the massive graphic novel From Hell. It was also made into a movie starring Johnny Depp. It's based on a theory of who Jack the Ripper was and why he killed. We Americans have our JFK theories, our British pals have their JTR theories.

The story is good, but it's a huge downer. It's not the sort of thing one should be reading in these dark months, but for those who could use an extra helping of seasonal depression, From Hell is just the ticket.

The story bummed me out because the victims were completely helpless. They were poor nineteenth-century prostitutes, essentially street people, scratching out a living day to day by letting any guy give them some coins for a few minutes against a wall. Then on top of it all they were being hunted by a psychotic killer. They simply had nowhere to run, and little to live for. Death and mutilation closed in, inevitable as the sunset.

As if autumn's dark and From Hell together weren't enough to knock me into a funk, layoffs hit the day job. Fortunately, I was lucky and spared the ordeal of having to look for employment. Luck was all it came down to. Those that were released across all levels of the organization were powerless to resist and I was powerless to help them.

It's the powerlessness that's upsetting. Tie that in with the brutal impact of the event, make it random and you've got everything that composes terror.

To ponder the subject of layoffs and poverty sends me on a rant-path that always ends with this question: Why are we working, anyway? Why are we relying on the random forces of the market (meaning, the will of the rich)? There is enough wealth and food for everyone to have plenty. If we could just all distribute the work evenly, we could probably work one day a week and spend the remaining six days doing little more than drinking and eating and goofing off. Who's the ass that came up with the concept of work? Why couldn't Jack the Ripper take out that fool?

Now I'm not saying that your modern cube jockey is as unfortunate as your average nineteenth-century prostitute from the slums of London...

Or am I?

I don't think I am. Despite similarities, they're not identical. I'd argue now, people are better off. There is money to be collected from unemployment. If you want to, you could survive using a credit card for a while, even though you'd go into debt for a long time.

According to the theory, the Jack the Ripper killings were not random, there was an agenda behind them (but no spoilers here!) Maybe that's inaccurate. Maybe they were random. The human mind just can't tolerate a lack of reason. We see patterns even when we don't want to. Images emerge from clouds. Shapes form in TV static.

Randomness annoys our brains. Death terrifies. Together that's a primal-level scared-shitless cocktail.

Sure, there may be a reason behind something, some kind of pattern, but if we're not aware of it, it might as well be random. If we're powerless to stop it, does a pattern make it anymore comforting? Or does that make it worse, convincing us that the architect behind the forces that control our lives is malevolent just like Jack the Ripper and just like a system that makes layoffs so crushing?

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Larry Nocella is the author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available on Amazon. For more info, visit his website at http://www.larrynocella.com/.